The Author Carol Rinkleib Ellison, Ph.D., is a psychologist in private
practice, an assistant clinical professor with the Department of Psychiatry
at the University of California San Francisco, and an adjunct faculty member
at the Institute of Imaginal Studies in Petaluma, California. A fellow
with the Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality, Dr. Ellison is
an esteemed researcher and regular instructor of human sexuality courses
for mental health professionals. She is the co-author of Understanding
Sexual Interaction and Understanding Human Sexuality.

About the Foreword Who would have been better suited to provide the foreword to
this extensive study of female sexuality than Beverly Whipple, Ph.D., R.N.?
Dr. Whipple herself has conducted much research on female sexuality, and
over the past two decades she has contributed to the field with over eighty
research articles, many interviews and presentations, and several books,
including the world-wide best seller The G Spot.

Female Sexuality Research Pioneers Few large-scale surveys on women's sexualities precede this
book. Dr. Ellison pays tribute to two female pioneers in the field of human
sexuality research, Clelia Mosher (1863-1940) and Katherine Bement Davis
(1860-1935).

Mosher interviewed 45 married women about their sexuality in
the beginning of the 20th Century, but her findings were not published
until 1980 (6). In 1929, Davis published the book Factors in the Sex Life
of Twenty-Two Hundred Women (2). Her sample was split about equally into
married and unmarried women, and the age span of respondents in Davis'
study ranged from twenty-one to eighty-three years.

Mosher and Davis may have received little lifetime recognition
for their research, but their contributions to the field of human sexuality
research have recently been publicly acknowledged also in Dr. Vern L. Bullough's
speech to the European Federation of Sexology (EFS) in Berlin (1). In his
presentation titled "The History of Sex Research in the USA," Dr. Bullough
included Mosher and Davis in the list of the ten most important pioneers
in American sexuality research. Interestingly, John D. Rockefeller, Jr.
also was included in this list, primarily for his financial support and
facilitation of early sex research, including Katherine Bement Davis's
work. Rockefeller, who along with his parents had been involved in Christian
programs to help young people maintain high moral standards, in 1911 established
the Bureau of Social Hygiene to conduct studies on prostitution in the
United States and Europe. Davis, one of the first female Ph.D.'s in the
country, was appointed to the advisory board of the Bureau and this position
allowed her to gradually move into researching other areas of sexual behavior.
Under continued sponsorship by Rockefeller, she became involved in her
own study on the sex lives of 2,200 women, (1, 2). As it is today, funding
for sexuality research was generally difficult to obtain, and without Rockefeller's
financial support few studies may have been conducted at that time.

Another early researcher of female sexuality, not mentioned in
Ellison's book, was the gynecologist Robert Latou Dickinson (1861-1950).
His research began in the 1890's, but his study on 4,000 married and 1,200
single women was not published until after his retirement four decades
later (1, 3, 4). And then there was Alfred C. Kinsey (1894-1956), whose
publication Sexual Behavior in the Human Female (5) is well known.

Dr. Ellison's Survey Dr. Ellison and colleagues, family and friends distributed approximately
6,000 questionnaires. 2,632 anonymously completed forms were returned and
provide the foundation for this study. Many women added personal comments,
some of which are included in the book. The respondents were 83% Caucasian,
relatively well educated American women, born between 1905 and 1977.

Contents Most aspects of female sexuality are covered in this book, resulting
in a colorful picture of how women differ with respect to past experiences,
evolving values and morals, and expectations for their partners and relationships.
With her gentle style, Dr. Ellison takes the reader on a fascinating journey
through the sexual lives of women of all ages. Her examples are enlightening
and educational. She invites the reader to think actively and to reflect
on her own sexual life as she progresses through the book. In an appendix,
Dr. Ellison presents outlines for various discussion topics relevant to
each chapter of the book. She suggests that women gather in Sexual Self-Acceptance
(SEXSA) Circles in order to share their own unique sexual development,
and possibly to enable each other to reach a state of sexual self-acceptance.

I often have women come to my sex therapy clinic with the expectation
that they and/or their partners are doing something wrong. Dr. Ellison
offers a refreshing perspective on intimacy and her strong message to all
of us is that a couple is "… sexually successful when they create mutual
erotic pleasure, to whatever level and in whatever form they desire on
any particular occasion, so that each ends up feeling good about herself
or himself and the other, experiencing a good time and enhancing their
relationship (page 217)."

Two chapters are devoted to women's orgasms, and the chapter
on sexual choreography contains an outstanding description of the physiological
changes taking place during women's sexual arousal. Dr. Ellison educates
the reader with an "…intergenerational smorgasbord of suggestions (page
253)" for increasing erotic pleasure and enhancing orgasms (page 245).

Conclusion I can highly recommend this substantial book. It contains considerable,
educational material beyond what I have mentioned in this review. Dr. Ellison's
focus is away from sexual performance and achievements and towards the
creation of intimate moments, whatever form they might take. Men may benefit
as much as women from reading Women's Sexualities.

More information about the book can be found on www.womenssexualities.com.

References 1) Bullough, Vern L. (Oral presentation) The History of Sex
Research in the USA, European Federation of Sexology (EFS) meeting, Berlin;
June 29th, 2000